The purpose of the symposium is to better understand current debates about the history of human rights, their violation and protection. Among the questions posed: Is there a history of human rights that predates World War II in the international treaties, compacts and humanitarian practices of the interwar period? What international interventions and ideologies in the period before World War II contributed to the emergence of the human rights discourse in the post-war period? What role have human rights played in post-World War II anti-colonial struggles? How have human rights discourses changed since the Cold War, and in what ways have people come to employ the language of human rights in their legal, political and cultural struggles? The HRI is particularly interested in scholarship around these questions from the perspective of the histories of Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.

Historians and scholars in other disciplines employing historical methodologies are invited to submit a 300-word abstract and brief c.v. by email to Keith David Watenpaugh, Director, Human Rights Initiative (kwatenpaugh@ucdavis.edu). Deadline for application is December 1, 2011.

Funding for travel may be available due to a generous grant of the UC Davis Academic Senate Committee on Research.